I hope this blog entry reaches every single person with Cerebral Palsy, their parents or anyone associated with someone with Cerebral Palsy. Whether the person has mild Cerebral Palsy or severe, i'd like to share some insights that could go a very long way for a very long time. This entry may seems more benaficial to those who only have mild to moderate Cerebral Palsy, but make no misconception, it targets those who has moderate to severe Cerebral Palsy as well.
First I want to point out some physiological aspect of growing. When you are young, whether you are “normal” or you have Cereral Palsy, you come into this world a very soft, very flexable person. This is why it is very hard for a very young child to break a arm or a leg. The bone would just bend because it is still forming and the bone tissue is still soft. Not to say the bone won't break, eventually it will break if the bone is bent too far; but, to give you a mental picture of how the body grows. This also goes for our musclue formation. The muscles are very soft and flexable; therefore, streching comes easier.
Now, the reason I gave you a physiological run down for a childs physical growth period is because I wanted to give you a mental picture of how important this period is for exercizing regularly, ever physical tharapy. You see, when your body matures, or you may say stops growing, your body becomes more profound, solid and less flexable. It becomes harder to strech your muscles as you get older.
From a nutritional standpoint, what you eat is crucial whether you have Cerebral palsy or not. My original thought was eating more fruits and vegatables helps keeps your muscles more soft and flexable as oppose to eating too much solid or junk food will make your muscles a bit tight and less flexable, but most of the things i read concentrate on nutrious food that can be easily consumed out of concerns to eliminate digestion problems. Either way, the goal is the same, which is to promote good health and growth. The organization 4 My Child, which focuses on improving the conditions of children with cerebral palsy, states that vitamins and nutrients that are found in fruits are essential for proper growth and health of the brain. Since my focus is more on muscle growth for exercizing my findings are equally important. Since my focus is on the important of exercizing when you are young with Cerebral Palsy i will not get too technical with physiology and nutritional importance.
There are so many exercises you can do. Each person with Cerebral Palsy is unique; therefore, each person has their own muscle patterns they need to tackle. Some muscle patterns prevent you from doing everyday tasks that non disable people take for granted. One small example is when I was little i could not hold my head streight and bring my left hand up with a spoon to feed myself. My head would just turn to the right. It was explained that i had a certain muscle pattern that causes such movement. So I was given exercises to do to break that particular muscle pattern. And it was important to break that muscle pattern at an early age because the longer an unwanted muscle pattern was preserves the harder it is to break.
Regardless to how servere ones Cerebral palsy is, swimming is highly reccomended. Not necessarily to learn to swim, but so work all your muscles. The warm water allows the muscles to relax while you are working on your muscles. The warm water also helps blood and oxygen flow extremely easier to your muscles. So, if you can, do all the exercises you do in the pool. A lot of times you can strech you muscles further in the warm pool water.
You can make progress when your body is mature, no doubt. The main goal is to keep your muscles streched and strong when you exercise, but you need to be considtant. Also, exercising helps with te flow of oxygen to lungs and blood, it helps keep your heart stong and beating properly, and helps keep the other organs healthy and strong. As I pointed out how important it is to execise and tackle unwanted muscle patterns when you're young, gave you reasons to eat healthily, and that when you body matures it gets hard to exercise; however, there are other reasons society places on us to give us obsticles, such as: work, school—if you decide to go to college, and other societal norms. Also it may not by easy to find the help you need when you are older then when you are younger.
